Ignore the headlines: 2015 was a great year 別理那些頭條：2015年是一個超棒的一年

(CNN)If you spend a lot of time with us here on CNN (and we hope you do), you probably think 2015 was a pretty terrible year: Wars. Refugees. Terrorism. The list goes on.

如果您花了很多時間在看CNN（我們希望您是如此），你大概會認為2015年是一個蠻糟糕的一年：戰爭、難民、恐怖主義，讓人不開心的事情不勝枚舉。

But take a step back from the headlines, and it's clear the year gone by was full of good news for hundreds of millions of people around the world.

但先讓我們把那些頭條新聞放在一旁，你能夠很清楚地看到，過去的一年充滿著對世界上數億人來說的好消息。

As the year ends, here are seven reasons to be cheerful:

這一年來到尾聲，讓我們來說說能夠讓人們開心的七個理由：

Cheap Oil便宜的石油

The world is awash with black gold, so prices have dropped by more than a third. The value of a barrel of crude is as low as it's been since the financial crisis in 2009, and there's speculation that it could fall even lower if and when sanctions on Iran are lifted.

全球充斥著石油，因此油價已經降了超過三分之一，每桶原油價格還是維持在2009年的金融危機當時的低點，而還有猜測表示如果對於伊朗的制裁升溫，原油的價格還有可能在更低。

Myanmar had elections; the good guys won 緬甸舉行大選；正義的一方勝出

Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi spent nearly 18 years under house arrest, she's barred from being president because her husband was British, and the military is keeping a quarter of seats in parliament for itself -- and even so, her National League for Democracy won so many seats in parliament she looks set to be calling the shots.

諾貝爾和平獎的緬甸籍得主翁山蘇姬被軟禁於自宅中將近18年，因為她的老公是英國人導致她無法成為總統，而軍方則為自己在國會中保留四分之一的席次，然而就算如此，全國民主聯盟在國會中得到的席次還是多到足以讓她在未來掌握大權。

A sweeping climate-change deal passed 通過一項重要的氣候變遷協議

The world agreed to fight climate change. Some key things to know about the Paris agreement: Every country signed on to it. It's legally binding. Supporters are calling it "the end of the era of fossil fuels." It may not d o enough to achieve the stated goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but CNN's John D. Sutter calls it "a giant shove in the right direction."

這個世界一致認同要抗氣候變遷，關於巴黎協定中有幾項關鍵事項：每個國家都支持這項協定，而這項協定是俱有法律約束力的，支持者稱這為「石油時代的終結」

這個協定或許無法達到預定的目標-讓全球暖化的溫度控制在攝氏2度(華氏3.6度)以內，但CNN的John D. Sutter認為這是在對的方向上，一項重要的推進。

Same-sex marriage becomes the law of the land 同性婚姻成為國家法律

The United States has moved with remarkable speed to accept gay rights, with a majority of younger people saying that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, and the country's highest court agreeing. Even if you don't support same-sex marriage, it's hard to deny that the country has lived up to its professed ideals of freedom and equality. Across the pond, Ireland voted to legalize same-sex marriage too.

隨著大多數的年輕人對於同性婚姻的贊同，以及最高法院對於同性戀婚姻的承認，同性戀的權利上在美國是以可觀的速度在前進，就算你不支持同性婚姻，但難以否認的是，這個國家致力于提倡其公認的自由與平等。在大西洋那一頭的愛爾蘭也同樣公投將同性婚姻合法化。

A billion people out of poverty 十億人口脫離貧窮

There are half as many extremely poor people in the world as there were at the turn of the century. Unless you're a professional do-gooder, you might not have paid much attention to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, so here's a cheat sheet: Back in 2000, world leaders set out eight ways they were going to try to fight poverty over the next 15 years.

在二十世紀末到二十一世紀初之間，世界上有一半的人口處於極端貧窮的狀態，除非你是不切實際的社會改良家，你可能不會特別去注意聯合國的「千禧年發展目標」，讓我來給你幾個小提示：時間回到2000年，世界各國的領導人們為未來15年計劃了八個對抗貧窮的方法。

One goal was to "eradicate extreme poverty," defined as living on less than $1.25 a day. This year, the UN reported that the number of people that poor had fallen from 1.75 billion in 1999 to 836 million today. And the percentage of people in developing countries that poor fell from 37% in 1999 to 14% now.

其中一個目標是「根除極端貧窮」，赤貧（extremely poverty, 極端貧窮）的定義是每天以1.25美元或以下的生活費過活，今年，聯合國公佈貧窮人口的數量已經從1999年的17.5億人下降到8億3千6百萬人，而在發展中國家的貧窮人口比例已經從1999年的37％下降至現今的14%。

We are much more connected. 我們彼此之間更緊密地連結了。

Internet and phone access has skyrocketed. This was another Millennium Development Goal. Ten times as many people have mobile phone subscriptions now as did at the turn of the century, and Internet penetration has leapt from 6% worldwide to 43%.

使用網路與手機的人以驚人的速度增加，而這也是另一個千禧年發展目標，現在使用行動電話的電信用戶是二十世紀末到二十一世紀的十倍之多，而網路覆蓋的地區從6%擴及到了43%。

New Star Wars movie… new hope? 新一集的星際大戰… 是新希望?

There's a new Star Wars movie out, and there's widespread agreement that it's terrific. Even if it's merely pretty good, it has to be better than The Phantom Menace. No spoilers, please -- I still haven't seen it.

有新一集的星際大戰電影上映了，而且廣受好評，就算這部電影的好看程度只是還不錯而已，但它一定比《星際大戰首部曲：威脅潛伏》更好看，不要劇透，拜託--因為我還沒有看。

原文網址：http://goo.gl/R6c5T1